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Holger Czukay 'Good Morning Story'

From the grand master of electronica and the founding member of legendary band CAN. This CD includes contributions from former members of CAN including Micheal Karoli, Irwin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit along with Jah Wobble.

Track Listing:

1. Invisible Man
2. Good morning Story
3. Dancing in wide circles
4. World of the universe
5. Atlantis
6. Mirage

CMJ NEW MUSIC REPORT Holger Czukay "Good Morning Story" Review by Chris Nickson Former Can bass player Holger Czukay has trodden a strange path over the years, his work as a solo artist heading into uncharted terrain, where the things you took for granted about music simply don't exist - there are no signposts back to normality. In some ways that's par for the course, considering his career, but Good Morning Story takes it several steps further, and in the very best way. The first couple of tracks here are reminiscent of the William Burroughs/Material collaboration on Seven Souls., but much stranger- like a cut-up Kafka novel with musical accompaniment, a sidestep into a parallel universe. And when you get to the epic "Mirage", all 22 minutes of it, time seems to move more slowly, the sounds that seem vaguely familiar turning out to be something else. Elsewhere, the rhythmic figures take on a dazzling complexity, far beyond anything techno or drum n bass has managed to churn up, while guitars stutter and pierce - but very melodically. So we're talking serious art here, disorienting but accessible, the kind of territory Czukay has been exploring for years. He's joined by former Can bandmates (but it's not a reunion) and Jah Wobble, among others, in creating music that's aptly challenging for the end of the millenium. The adventure starts here.

RECORD COLLECTOR
January 2000
Review by Kieron Tyler
"Good Morning Story" is Holger Czukay's follow up to 1993's "Moving Pictures". As he was on that album, Czukay is joined by his Can colleagues, Michael Karoli and Jaki Liebezeit. Irmin Schmidt also appears. Amazingly, for a man making use of found-sounds since his 1968 solo debut, "Canaxis 5", this is Czukay's first album involving a sampler --- though spiritually, he's been a sampler for many years. On the whimsical "Invisible Man", Czukay collaborates with Jah Wobble and vocalist Sheldon Ancel. The shorter songs sample rhythms familiar with the Can album "Tago Mago" and the incorporation of the classic Can sound into Czukay's rubbery, almost Arabic, melodies is seamless. The five 3-to-5 minute opening tracks are followed by "Mirage", a 22-minute misty, shifting soundscape that takes in what sounds like Muslim calls to prayer, Middle-Eastern reed insturments and an almost Popul Vuh-like intensity. Mesmerising.

ALL MUSIC GUIDE
Holger Czukay "Good Morning Story"
Review by Rick Anderson

As a founding member of the legendary German avant-garde ensemble Can, Holger Czukay is widely recognized as a founding father of experimental rock’n’roll. After his acrimonious split from the band, Czukay swore he’d never play live again. But the sounds of jungle, techno and trip hop rekindled his interest in the club scene, so when Dr. Walker (of Air Liquide) invited Czukay to join him onstage during an underground party in Cologne, Germany, he was ready. This impromptu duo performance led to a number of more formal engagements, three of which are partially documented on these two discs. Disc 1 features three tracks from the duo’s gig at the Liquid Sky club in Cologne. After a long, freeform preface, "Silent Planes" settles into a trance-inducing midtempo groove and stays there for most of the track’s 19 minutes. "Liquid Skies" is more aggressive and also more varied in texture. Czukay makes great use of a radio receiver on "Twilight," from the duo’s performance at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, while "Backup Dream" is funkier but also more sinister. Disc 2 continues the San Francisco material with the surprisingly abrasive "Monks, Whales and Moonbeams (Over California)" and "Anything but the Jungle." The last two tracks, the 24-minute-long "Dawn Across the Street" and a lovely piece of multicultural big beat entitled "Full Circle," come from a gig in Minneapolis. Excellent.

Holger Czukay "Good Morning Story"
Review by Rolf Semprebon

Though he's over 60, Holger Czukay still has a few tricks up his sleeve. He treads familiar ground on Good Morning Story, but also stretches into new territory. Songs like "Invisible Man" and "World Of The Universe", with their chopped vocal snippets and upbeat rhythms, advance on material from Moving Pictures as well as Movies. Taking a cue from Sacrilege, an album that remixes from seminal innovators Can (of whom Czukay was a part), he uses rhythm samples from vintage Can on three tracks over which he adds voices and other insturments. Of these, "Dancing In Wild Circles" stands out. The album-side length "Mirage" is a fascinating ambient work using ethnic Arabic music that harkens back to early pieces he did in 1968 with sampled Vietnamese folk music. Drones, wails, chants, pipes and other sounds create music that is both stark and hallucinatory.